15 Reasons Suicide Squad Would Beat Justice League In A Fight

After the success of Batman v. Superman and Wonder Woman, fans are more excited about the upcomingJustice Leaguemovie than ever. At the same time, the off-kilter characters in the Suicide Squad movie left fans hankering for more of Deadshot and Harley Quinn. And the stinger to Suicide Squad— where we see Bruce Wayne tell Amanda Waller, “You should shut it down Or my friends and I will do it for you.”– hinted that in the future, we might see the two teams actually fight it out.

At first, this may sound like a lopsided fight. After all, a team that includes god-like aliens and Amazons should have no trouble with a bunch of ragtag criminals armed with guns and a baseball bat… right? However, things aren’t that simple, and there’s a good chance that the scrappy Suicide Squad could easily take out the Justice League.

15. Amanda Waller

A list of reasons why the Suicide Squad could beat the Justice League is not complete without Amanda Waller. She represents the coldhearted brains behind the Squad, and her brains are a dangerous thing. In different incarnations of Suicide Squad comics and television shows, she has known the secret identities of characters such as Batman (something alluded to by the stinger of the Suicide Squad movie). Imagine a ruthless government spook who would have no problem blowing up Wayne Manor in the morning just to get at a sleeping Batman, and you can see why she is so deadly.

Ironically, she has a specific similarity to Batman that makes her deadly to the Justice League: she has specific and intimate knowledge of the different heroes’ strengths and weaknesses. Just as Batman’s plans for taking down the League were frighteningly successful in Mark Waid’s Tower of Babel JLA storyline, Amanda Waller’s own knowledge of how to destroy each and every one of them pretty much assures a Squad victory.

14. Can’t plan for Harley Quinn

Some casual audiences for the Suicide Squad movie were a bit perplexed to see Harley Quinn on the team. After all, Waller sells the Squad as a way to take on evil forces as powerful as General Zod. Given that information, it’s easy to see why people would be skeptical of a crazy lady with a baseball bat. However, it’s actually Harley’s craziness that gives the Squad an edge over the Justice League.

Historically, Batman has had a lot of trouble figuring out the Joker, because the Joker’s chaotic plans often make no sense to his logical mind. During Grant Morrison’s Batman: RIP story, Joker even tormented Batman by making the Caped Crusader deduce all of the possibilities of a complex, card-based code that ended up being nonsense.

Harley is cut from the same cloth as Joker, and she adds a chaotic element to the Squad’s plans and actions that Batman cannot plan for and must simply react to. Throw in the fact that Harley is an ex-Arkham Asylum psychiatrist and the shoe is fully on the other foot: she has unique insights into the mind of heroes and superpowered people whereas Batman cannot know what she has in mind until it’s too late.

13. Lack of morals

The Suicide Squad movie, despite some of its other faults, illustrated the weird, fine line of morality that the Suicide Squad walks. On one hand, they are deployed in the service of a greater good, and often end up saving lives by taking out major threats. On the other hand, they are willing to let innocent lives die and even kill others to achieve their goals, as when Waller brutally kills the agents under her command because they were not supposed to know about the Enchantress. At the end of the day, the Squad’s lack of morality gives them a serious edge over the Justice League.

Superman and the other heroes are guided by the need to save lives. In fact, they will do anything to preserve life, as when Superman reluctantly snaps Zod’s neck to keep a family from becoming crispy victims of Zod’s laser eyes. All the Suicide Squad has to do is take hostages, endanger cities, and otherwise threaten mayhem to get the Justice League to dance to their tune.

Throw in Waller’s ability to figure out who the heroes are and her willingness to kidnap someone like Lois Lane or Alfred, and it’s clear that the Justice League has no chance.

12. Access to resources

In the 1989 Batman film, Joker gave voice to the frustration of villains everywhere when he asked, “where does he get all of those beautiful toys?” And it’s true: in addition to their natural abilities, access to money and technology has given the Justice League a major edge in their fights, from having orbiting satellite bases all the way to Trek-worthy teleporters. When it comes to the Suicide Squad, though, they have access to even more resources, which spells bad news for the good guys.

The Suicide Squad is, ultimately, a government-funded operation. They can have any special weapons or equipment they need provided to them at a moment’s notice, and they can rely on resources from across the world (such as Kryptonite) and even above it (such as using satellites to follow the heroes’ every move).

For a prolonged fight, the Squad can also rely on propaganda, with Waller and the government providing falsified evidence to the media so that the Justice League are painted as villains. With the world against them and their enemies pulling from bottomless pockets, the League’s days would be numbered.

11. The “suicide” thing

The Justice League’s willingness to do anything to save the lives of others extends to team members as well. Given a choice between chasing the bad guys or saving a teammate’s life, the League will save each other every time. Heck, Batman let Joker get away in the Suicide Squad movie flashback to save a drowning Harley Quinn, and this was after she helped murder Robin. And considering the “suicide” part of their name, the Squad can use the altruism of the Justice League to their advantage.

Amanda Waller (and to a lesser extent, Rick Flag) are certainly willing to endanger or even kill their team members if it gets the job done. Thus, they could throw Harley or Deadshot’s life in danger in order to make the heroes save them, buying time for the Squad to either win a fight with a different hero or get away.

10. A deep roster

The whole point of the Justice League is that it represents the best heroes on Earth. In fact, they’d probably call themselves Earth’s Mightiest Heroes if Disney didn’t have an army of copyright lawyers. However, the Suicide Squad has the luxury of a very deep roster: Amanda Waller and Rick Flag can pick pretty much any villains they have in prison and coerce them into service.

Functionally, this means that they can play “paper rock scissors” with the Justice League, as when Waller’s A.R.G.U.S.-backed Justice League team of the comics was specifically chosen to fight the real League.

Thus, the Squad can cherry-pick people to take on specific problems. Lex Luthor, for instance, could help take Superman out, while Catwoman’s intimate knowledge of Batman (and shifty morality) would give her the edge taking him out. Eventually, the League will run out of members before the Squad runs out of villains to throw at them, which makes it a good time to bet on the bad guys.

9. Home field advantage

Decades after the Dark Knight Returns comic premiered, fans still debate how Batman was able to defeat Superman. The short answer is that Batman had a home field advantage: he knew the area they were fighting in very well (it was where his parents died), and he had time to rig the area with a variety of tricks and traps to wear Superman down. The Suicide Squad is actually better equipped than the League to get this kind of advantage for any given battle.

As mentioned before, the Squad can kidnap and threaten various key individuals in order to bring the League running to anywhere they choose. Like Batman, they will have had a chance to outfit the area with a variety of tricks and traps custom-designed to weaken the League. The League ultimately gets the worst of both worlds, being taken out of their own comfort zone and plucked into a Squad member’s hometown-turned-kill zone.

8. A kind of magic

When it comes to talking about who could beat the Justice League, the question people are really asking is “who can beat Superman?” When you have a guy faster and stronger than bullets, who can kill someone by looking at them or breathing on them, it’s easy to see that this is pretty much a one-man army. And he doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses. Kryptonite is one of them, and the Squad can get that if they have to. However, Superman’s lesser-known weakness is magic, and that means Enchantress may be his downfall.

The Enchantress of the Suicide Squad movie was a bit of a let-down. For all of her power, she seemed content to create a weird zombie army and form a “swirling trash pile in the sky,” as Deadshot puts it, and spent the rest of the time doing an VFX-enhanced hula.

However, the Enchantress of the comics is a world-class threat: in the Justice League Dark comic, she is able to take out Superman and Wonder Woman without breaking a sweat, necessitating an entirely new magic-savvy team being formed. With Enchantress on their side, the Squad should have no trouble taking out the Justice League– though whether they can control her afterwards is anyone’s guess.

7. One-shot man

Deadshot is a member of the Suicide Squad that many people underestimate. On a team where various members have had magical and metahuman powers, the guy who is just a really good shot is easy to overlook. However, provided the right equipment, Deadshot is possibly the most dangerous member of the Suicide Squad.

As the Suicide Squad movie illustrated, Deadshot’s marksmanship is insane, as he is able to turn complicated ricochet shots into instant kills. We only see him use his expert aim against one human and a legion of zombie creatures, but it’s not hard to imagine Deadshot using a Kryptonite-laced bullet to shoot Superman through the head. Modified bullets could also deliver other weapons, to, such as fear gas to make Aquaman avoid water.

Give Deadshot the right gun and the right ammo, and he can kill any member of the League before they know he’s there.

6. Moral high ground

Of course, it doesn’t always take brute force to end a fight. Sometimes, even for a ragtag group such as the Suicide Squad, a bit of diplomacy and reasoning can end a fight before it begins. As mentioned previously, the Suicide Squad are usually on some kind of mission for the greater good, despite having their own ruthless and morally compromised ways of achieving those goals. After the inevitable misunderstanding between the two teams, it would be fairly easy to get the Justice League to team up with the Suicide Squad.

That opens up a few options. It may be enough for the Squad to win, knowing that they roped the high-and-mighty Justice League into doing the heavy lifting. Alternately, getting the League to trust them provides a prime opportunity for the Squad to start shooting Leaguers in the back.

When it’s all said and done, the Squad is able to play up their moral high ground to the people who care about that sort of thing and then look out for themselves when the job is done.

5. Knowledge of League Operations

One of the weirder bits of trivia is that the character of Oracle (Barbara Gordon, who became an ace hacker for superheroes when she was paralyzed by the Joker and couldn’t be Batgirl) was first introduced in a Suicide Squad comic. She served as their mysterious remote support, and she functionally filled the same kind of role for them that she would later fill for Batman and the Justice League. Thanks to shrewd operators like Amanda Waller and Flag, this could prove disastrous for the Justice League.

In various comics eras and incarnations (such as Grant Morrison’s JLA run), Oracle was the person who kept the Justice League coordinated and in communication with one another. Now that Waller and Flag know how she thinks, they may be able to manipulate her or simply plant fake evidence and clues so that she sends key League members on a wild goose chase while others are hunted down by the Squad.

With the threat of Oracle effectively nullified, the Suicide Squad gains a huge advantage.

4. Rick Flag: Tactical Genius

Regarding the power of the Justice League, fans are always quick to point out the tactical genius of Batman. With enough time and planning, the Caped Crusader is a character capable of fighting Superman, White Martians, and other threats well above his weight level. With him on their side, how could the Justice League ever lose to the Suicide Squad? The answer is only two words: Rick Flag.

For fans who were only introduced to Rick Flag via the Suicide Squad movie, it’s easy to dismiss Flag. The movie never really shows his badass skills and instead reduces the soldier to a handful of memorable lines. However, the Rick Flag of the comics is amazing: he has single-handedly taken out old Nazi bases used by terrorists by blowing himself up with a nuclear bomb. Death didn’t stop him, though, and he was a warrior in the after life, fighting an evil angel and earning his way back to the world of the living.

In short, Flag’s experiences fighting all over the planet, and even through Purgatory, mean he can give Batman and the rest of the League a run for their money.

3. Infiltration Skills

Most fan debates about who would win in a fight between various teams of heroes and villains assume that the two groups would engage in a straight-up fight. However, that’s not always the Suicide Squad’s style. Some of the assorted members over the years have shown great skills at infiltration and sabotage. Put those skills together, and the Justice League will be defeated before they even know who their enemy is.

This was best illustrated in the old “Task Force X” episode of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. In this episode, the Squad is able to infiltrate the Justice League watchtower as members of its support staff. While on the tower, they are able to distract various League members by actions such as sabotaging generators and commandeering powerful technology that gives them an edge even over powerful foes like Martian Manhunter. True to form, the Squad leaves an injured teammate behind, using her to buy enough time to escape and bring Amanda Waller a combat robot.

Overall, the episode illustrated that the Suicide Squad’s sneakiness and stealth can give them an unexpected edge over the Justice League.

2. A Real Ice Queen

Many of the items on this list are hypothetical— things that could happen given the right characters and circumstances. However, one surprising certainty is that the Suicide Squad can always beat the Justice League so long as they have Killer Frost on their team. In the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad comic, Killer Frost discovered she was able to suck the energy right out of Superman!

How does this work, exactly? She has the ability to absorb heat from others. Superman may have complex alien physiology, but the basics are that he is a living solar battery. In the second issue of that comic series, she is able to suck the energy out of Superman’s body and channel it into taking out the entire rest of the team. Again, this speaks to the dangerously deep roster of the Squad that they can call on various people that can defeat Superman and the rest of the League.

1. The Main Man

One of the weirder elements of the DC Rebirth event is that it brought Lobo back. He was mercifully free of his controversial New 52 look and personality, and there was a new wrinkle: he was not a member of Suicide Squad! And having this particular alien on call means that the Justice League would be in for a fight they would never forget… assuming they survived.

This is because Lobo has a hell of a history. He is responsible for killing every other member of his race, and he possesses enough raw strength to go blow-for-blow with Superman. He has a healing factor that would make Deadpool blush, as Lobo is able to regenerate from his own blood. He’s immortal and, possibly as a result of this, surprisingly smart. Despite looking and acting like a space biker, Lobo is a savant when it comes to violence and destruction.

With both his brawn and his brains and the support of the rest of the Suicide Squad, the Justice League is unlikely to walk away from a fight with the self-styled “main man.”

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With any luck, we might see the Suicide Squad and Justice Leagueduke it out on the big screen someday. Until then, we’ll just have to enjoy the sequel to Suicide Squad, which will start filming in 2018!